This invention relates to a vehicle impact door beam assembly, and particularly to a unique bracket or extension of an impact tubular door beam assembly.
In meeting the requirements of the federal government, enacted in the Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard 214 (FMVSS 214), which mandate installation of door impact beams in vehicle side doors so as to have certain minimum impact resistance, a tubular beam having a steel composition such as that in U.S. Pat. No. 4,210,467 is mounted between the inner and outer door panels. Employees of the assignee herein have developed various tubular door beam configurations heretofore as set forth in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,636,608, 4,708,390, 5,118,159, and 5,123,694, such beams having their ends secured to brackets (commonly called extensions) which are in turn mounted to the door. To accommodate the convex tubular configuration, these brackets have a concave recess of the same configuration as the tube and the same diameter as, or slightly larger than, the diameter of the convexly curved door beam tube ends. The convex and concave size correlation must be close in order to assure an effective weld bond between the tube and bracket, and thereby assure proper impact protection to the vehicle passenger. These concave recesses are formed by a pair of stamping dies.
Different vehicles employ different diameter door beam tubes, because of different door lengths, door configurations and/or other factors. Each different door beam tube diameter necessitates a different size recess in the mounting brackets and hence a different set of stamping dies. Dies of this type presently typically cost about $50,000-$60,000 or more per set. Therefore, a working inventory of dies amounts to a very substantial cost investment by the manufacturer. Assembly of the tubular beams to the conventional brackets also normally requires a programmed welding robot because of the different angles of the welding seam. The total capital investment is very large, therefore.